Nelly Karim

Nelly Karim (born Nelly Mohamed El‑Sayed Atallah on 18 December 1974 in Alexandria, Egypt) is a celebrated Egyptian actress, singer, model and former prima ballerina. She grew up split between the Soviet Union, where her mother, a Russian from Leningrad, lived, and Egypt, spending summers with her father’s family from Zagazig. After her father’s death in 1991 the family moved permanently back to Egypt, and Karim enrolled at the Cairo Ballet Institute, quickly winning the Cairo Ballet Competition and joining the Cairo Opera Ballet Company. Her breakthrough onto the small screen came in 2000 when veteran actress Faten Hamama discovered her on the popular Ramadan show Fawazeer and cast her as her daughter in Wageh El Amar, a series that revived Hamama’s career and earned a Best Series award at the Egyptian Radio and Television Festival. From ballet to cinema, Karim’s film debut arrived with Youth on Air (2001) and she soon attracted the attention of director Youssef Chahine, appearing as Rita Hayworth in Alexandria… New York (2004), which screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. Her performance in Khaled Youssef’s You’re My Life earned her the Best Actress prize at the Cairo International Film Festival, and she continued to collaborate with visionary filmmakers such as Kamla Abou Zekri, Mariam Naoum, and Mohamed Diab, delivering powerful portrayals in One‑Zero (2009), 678 (2010) and the acclaimed series Zaat (2013). Her roles frequently tackle social taboos, from drug addiction in Under Control to mental illness in Free Fall, and she has been recognised with awards at the Arab Film Festival, the Asia‑Pacific Screen Awards and a Golden Tanit at Carthage. Beyond the screen, Karim’s personal life has been equally public. She married young, becoming a mother at eighteen, and later wed businessman Hani Abuelnaga in 2004, with whom she has two daughters before their 2015 divorce. In 2021 she married squash champion Hisham Mohd Ashour, a marriage that ended in 2024. A multilingual talent who speaks Arabic, Russian and English, she continues to balance acting with occasional musical projects, maintaining a prominent presence in contemporary Arab cinema and television.